God's Broken Heart
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Schoolyard Fight
Schoolyard Fight
Yeah, I was in a fight. It was pretty brutal. He walked up on the playground and punched me in the face.
Then I turned the other cheek. His cheek. With my fist. And then we both walked away.
I don’t know why Russel punched me. I shouldn’t have punched him back, but I did. And we were friends the next day.
Not a big deal. Certainly not the most hurt I’ve ever been or the most I’ve hurt anyone else. Russel and I just weren’t that close.
But if Brandon came up now and punched me in the face… that would hurt a lot more. Not just because B is a LOT stronger than Russel in 4th grade; but because it would be so unexpected, I care a lot more about Brandon than I ever did about Russel. Sorry, Russel.
Angry Contest
Angry Contest
What is the angriest you have ever been?
What is the most hurt you have ever been?
Maybe the most betrayed?
The most sad you’ve ever been?
And quite possibly, all of those in the same event at the same time…
Most likely that wasn’t from the act of some random stranger, but someone close to you. The old adage “we hurt the ones we love.”
Letter from a Lover
Letter from a Lover
I came across this letter online. Hurray for the Internet. And warning, it’s a bit graphic, a bit gruesome… and it has some harsh language in it.
Apparently this is a dude whose wife has been unfaithful to him, repeatedly… and he writes to his oldest son… some pretty horrible things about his mom.
What’s the angriest you’ve ever been? I think this “friend” is more upset at his wife than I’ve ever been at anyone in my entire life.
He is angry, and maybe we can all judge him in his anger he says some pretty unfortunate things.
And you can judge me for reading this in church, too.
“Haul your mother into court. Accuse her! She’s no longer my wife. I’m no longer her husband. Tell her to quit dressing like a whore, displaying her breasts for sale.
If she refuses, I’ll rip off her clothes and expose her, naked as a newborn. I’ll turn her skin into dried-out leather, her body into a badlands landscape, a rack of bones in the desert.
I’ll have nothing to do with her children, born one and all in a whorehouse.
Face it: Your mother’s been a whore, bringing bastard children into the world. She said, ‘I’m off to see my lovers! They’ll wine and dine me, Dress and caress me, perfume and adorn me!’
But I’ll fix her: I’ll dump her in a field of thistles, then lose her in a dead-end alley.
Yada, yada, yada...
I’m about to bring her up short: No more wining and dining! Silk lingerie and gowns are a thing of the past.
I’ll expose her genitals to the public. All her fly-by-night lovers will be helpless to help her.
Party time is over. I’m calling a halt to the whole business, her wild weekends and unholy holidays.
I’ll wreck her sumptuous gardens and ornamental fountains, of which she bragged, ‘Whoring paid for all this!’ They will soon be dumping grounds for garbage, feeding grounds for stray dogs and cats.
If you haven’t guessed the source of the letter by now, I’ll put the next bit up on the slide.
And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals when she burned offerings to them and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry, and went after her lovers and forgot me, declares the Lord.
What is this letter? I read it online. BibleGateway.com. Hosea chapter 2 in the Message translation.
God uses the metaphor of family to describe his people over and over again. Israel is His Bride, the Church is His Bride, the Kingdom of God… He is the Bridegroom and we, collectively, are the bride.
And his beloved, his bride, his wife, is unfaithful to him over and over and over again.
And here is this guy Hosea, called a prophet of YHWH. And God is going to play out in Hosea’s own life the tragic love story of His love for His people.
The story of Hosea
The story of Hosea
Marries a prostitute. Not an “escort” or any euphemism, the emphasis is on the lowliness, the sinfulness, the brokenness of this poor woman.
When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.”
And Hosea goes and picks “Gomer.” Beautiful name. Less popular these days. (Actually looked this up, 12721st most popular name, exclusively dudes).
And she has three kids, with their own special names. First son:
And the Lord said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.
There was a massacre at Jezreel, like calling your kid 9-11.
She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, “Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all.
And to round it out:
When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son.
And the Lord said, “Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”
The Lord is furious. Angry with his people.
Because it isn’t just that Gomer was a prostitute, we’ll see in coming verses, it is clear that she returns to prostitution. Hosea will be sent after her....
Because Israel wasn’t unfaithful to God and then God rescued her… and then it was great. Israel betrayed God again. And again. And again. And that continues through all of human history.
God crafted and created these people… and over and over again they break his heart. We break his heart.
Picture the most hurt, the most betrayed you have ever been. I bet that wasn’t a stranger. That was someone you loved. Someone you trusted.
The bigger you loved, the more potential for hurt, isn’t there. There’s a hard truth.
Now… take the most you can possibly love… you think God loves more than that? Bigger than that? Truer than that?
Love isn’t just something God knows about, or does occasionally, or tries at. God is love. He loves with all that He is… because He is love, it core to his being. He loves perfectly, completely, entirely, without reservation.
And He is holy and perfect in that love.
If His love is that big… can you imagine the hurt when His beloved turns away from him? Rejects Him? Does the things that SHE KNOWS will hurt him.
The size of the heart of God… the size of the breaking of God’s heart when His people despise Him. Turn away to made up and empty gods of stone and metal. Choose Ba’al or gold or popularity or pleasure or… choose not Him.
The language is harsh… the pain in the heart of God is harsh.
Sometimes we get this picture of “God the Judge”: the angry bearded guy in the sky who sits in lordly-but-distant condemnation.
God screams through Hosea, that’s not what it’s like at all. He is the broken hearted husband, torn between his righteous anger, his hurt, just shouting STOP IT!!!
The rest of the Letter
The rest of the Letter
“And now, here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to start all over again. I’m taking her back out into the wilderness where we had our first date, and I’ll court her.
I’ll give her bouquets of roses. I’ll turn Heartbreak Valley into Acres of Hope. She’ll respond like she did as a young girl, those days when she was fresh out of Egypt.
“At that time”—this is God’s Message still— “you’ll address me, ‘Dear husband!’ Never again will you address me, ‘My slave-master!’
I’ll wash your mouth out with soap, get rid of all the dirty false-god names, not so much as a whisper of those names again.
At the same time I’ll make a peace treaty between you and wild animals and birds and reptiles, And get rid of all weapons of war. Think of it! Safe from beasts and bullies!
And then I’ll marry you for good—forever! I’ll marry you true and proper, in love and tenderness.
Yes, I’ll marry you and neither leave you nor let you go. You’ll know me, God, for who I really am.
And then, I love this, he reverses the names of the kids to reflect His love, His plan:
“And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth,
and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel,
and I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’ ”
God knows who his bride is… but he is going to love her anyway. Restore and rescue and redeem her despite all of it. Despite past mistakes and future mistakes.
The rest of Hosea’s story.
The rest of Hosea’s story.
So in chapter 3 God sends Hosea again, to “love your wife again.”
Then God ordered me, “Start all over: Love your wife again, your wife who’s in bed with her latest boyfriend, your cheating wife. Love her the way I, God, love the Israelite people, even as they flirt and party with every god that takes their fancy.”
And Hosea did it. Bought his wife back out of slavery, again.
I did it. I paid good money to get her back. It cost me the price of a slave.
Then I told her, “From now on you’re living with me. No more whoring, no more sleeping around. You’re living with me and I’m living with you.”
Francine Rivers retells this story beautifully in “Redeeming Love”, well worth reading. There’s a movie I haven’t seen.
An incredible love story. Written out on the stage of history. But it isn’t about human love… it is about God’s love for us.
Achy-Breaky Heart
Achy-Breaky Heart
One way to take this is to focus on how much it hurts God when we sin. And that’s true, it does. That’s part of what God is teaching here through his prophet Hosea.
God is not aloof, just condemning you from afar, like a “tsk tsk” of a stranger.
God loves you more than your Mom. More than your spouse. More than your best-friend. God knows you and loves you more than anyone who didn’t create you and craft could possibly hope to.
And He created you and crafted you for the PURPOSE of being in relationship with Him. Created to Creator.
God created me for Himself. He loves me more than anyone else in all creation could love and cherish me. And over and over again, I betray that love, I am unfaithful, I choose to put other things on the throne of my life, in the center of my life, my time, my attention.
God, forgive me. I need your mercy. I need your grace.
The amazing thing… is that God gives that grace. Again, and again, and again.
The prophet Hosea is a forerunner of Jesus himself. His name means “salvation”, and is an adaptation of Yeshua (aka Joshua/Jesus).
God himself goes to rescue his bride, to redeem her from slavery, from prostitution.
Reckless, Relentless, Redeeming Love
Reckless, Relentless, Redeeming Love
This is what amazes me.
While we were yet enemies, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
And, knowing that even after, we would still mess up again. That’s not an “oopsie” to God, it is betrayal all over again… and yet still it is covered by the mercy and grace in Jesus.
He has already forgiven. Already rescued. And every time I stumble and fall, my Savior saves and has saved and will save me.
I say his love is “Relentless”… because He never gives up on us.
I say his love is “Reckless”… and we’ve had some good talks about that. One definition is “not caring about the consequence of one’s actions” and that can’t possibly describe God. He cares all the way. Was that letter from someone who didn’t care.
But “reckless” also means “marked by a lack of caution”. And that describes this Hosea kind of love. God knows what He is getting in to when He chose to make me. And love me. And rescue me, knowing that I will mess it all up again… and loving me all over again.
But more than all, His love is Redeeming… because though we may stumble and fall 100 times, His love is changing us. Rescuing us and restoring us to the beautiful, immortal, glorious creatures He has created us to be.
That is the love of God for us.
We can’t return it, we can never love God as much or as perfectly as He loves us.
We can receive it.
We can be changed by it.
Oh, the overwhelming, never ending, reckless love of God.